Chapter Text
Essek sighed, staring down at his phone while the movie ran in class. He had already watched the film earlier in the semester and was bored by it, seeing as he already watched it for a different class the year before as well. It didn’t help that the student in front of him was extremely tall and blocked his view. It also didn’t help that there was a student in class snoring; not loudly, but just audibly enough to be distracting from the movie. So he had stealthily retrieved his phone from his bag and started browsing through his tutoring schedule.
Most of the students he was tutoring had given up on the tutoring service, resigned to fail their courses. For some, the course finally clicked and they didn’t need the tutoring to pass the class. Many were dorm students, too, who were busy between schoolwork and packing their rooms up for the upcoming holiday. A couple weren’t, living off-campus and having the option to stay in town. One of the students was also active online, from what he could tell, even though Essek knew for a fact that he had a test early in the morning. It was almost eleven at night, so he sent off a message wishing him good luck on his upcoming test.
Calton: Ah, shit, I forgot about that! Thanks, Thelyss!
Essek shook his head and sighed to himself, scrolling through messages he hadn’t checked all day. He generally left his phone on silent during the day and rarely checked it, most especially not in class. So he felt a quiet thrill of excitement up his spine as he slacked off for once. As he read and responded to the messages he needed to, he noticed one of the other students he tutored was online as well.
This student, a human on a scholarship, was intriguing. Essek recalled the day the dunamancy professor had called him aside as class let out and handed him a sheet of paper, detailed with this student’s name, year of school, address, phone number, and other information for tutoring, but all hand-written as opposed to done online. It was the first day of classes, which tutoring requests were almost unheard of for the first week, with a handful trickling in as the first month progressed and into midterms, when most students seeking tutoring made their requests. So a request on the first day of classes was strange.
"Essek, you’re one of my top students,” she said, handing him the paper, “and you’re listed as a tutor for my classes. I got an email from this student regarding my entry class, and he wasn’t able to get into any of them due to conflicting coursework.”
"So he’s not one of your students? How does he need tutoring then?” Essek asked, looking over the information.
"He’s a scholarship recipient,” the professor explained, patting a stack of books next to her. “His coursework is much more limited than the typical student based on their four-year plan, but he managed to load up his schedule to a point where I’m honestly a bit worried about how he will manage it all.” She passed another sheet to Essek, whose eyes went wide as he looked it over. “He’s basically in class from seven in the morning until six at night, barely twenty minutes for lunch, and he’s having to cross campus within a few minutes to get to class on time, multiple times a week. Even with a haste spell, that’s cutting it awfully close.” The professor shook her head. “He maxed out how many credits you can take in a single semester.”
"I’m sorry if I’m misunderstanding you, professor, but what does that have to do with my tutoring?” Essek asked again, trying to hand the paper back. She shook her head once more and tapped the books.
"I’d like to ask you to teach him.”
He found himself hitting the send button by the time he removed himself from his memories, and inwardly groaned. He tried not to message students for social calls, but he was curious what he was up to so late at night.
Essek: Yo Widogast
He waited a moment or so before sending a second message, then a beat before he sent two more.
Essek: u up?
got 1h more till the end of history classes…
and im so bored already
The response wasn’t very quick, but the rapid fire of the three messages surprised him. Most of Widogast’s messages were well thought out paragraphs, but usually also dealt with the tutoring schedule, questions about the subject material, and more educational reasons, so perhaps this was his way of texting normally.
Caleb Widogast: hello there;)
why dont you come to my place after?;)
maybe I can find a solution for this boredom of yours;)
Essek sent back an affirmative reply, and watched the clock on his phone tick away the time until class was over. It was past midnight now, and the last bus of the night class schedule was loading up. Essek normally took that trip, but since he made plans to visit Caleb, he didn’t worry about catching the bus. He knew there was a taxi that ran overnight for bar patrons, and he could easily catch a ride home.
It wasn’t his first time going over. He had called Caleb the evening he received the request and asked when would be a good time to meet up and get introduced, and figure out a tutoring schedule.
The bakery and cafe that Caleb suggested them to meet at was just off campus, and Essek in true form showed up about fifteen minutes early. It wasn’t terribly busy, only a handful of people sitting around with books and notebooks open, so Essek ordered some food and a coffee, then while his food was made, found a seat that gave him a view of the door so he could see the student when he arrived. His name was called just after six o’clock, the appointed meeting time, so he sent a message to Caleb asking if he was running late as he went to retrieve his food. But one of the other customers had taken up a seat at Essek’s table when he returned and was looking at his phone, messy ginger-brown hair curtaining his face.
"No, I am here,” the man said as Essek began to voice a protest; the human looked up and smiled at him warmly. “My class was just going over the syllabus, so we got out early. I have been here since about four thirty. My name is Caleb Widogast, and it is a pleasure to meet you, Essek Thelyss.” He stuck out his hand as Essek sat down with his food.
"Indeed, a pleasure,” Essek chuckled, shaking the human’s hand. “I had told you I wouldn’t have anything today before eight, so you could have let me know you were here early.”
"I wanted to get some work done before we met, so I would stay on schedule.”
Essek had learned that day that Caleb was not only incredibly intelligent, but he also had a photographic memory and could recall information he has read with unbelievable accuracy. To keep up on his schoolwork, he had worked out a very strict schedule for classes, social time, homework, eating… Everything down to a three minute window. He even had his showering scheduled in; in Essek’s opinion, it certainly wasn’t long enough nor enough times in a week, but as the semester went on, he never would have known Caleb only showered twice a week for six minutes each had he not seen the intricate time management Caleb had showed him.
With weekends almost entirely dedicated between homework and his job at the library, Caleb had maybe six hours for sleep a night and five hours weekly in case something came up and he had to adjust his schedule a bit. Those five hours were cut to two total, as Essek’s schedule only gave him a three-hour window during the week that matched with Caleb’s schedule; and those three hours were argued down by Essek from Caleb’s desired five. Even with Caleb’s suggestion of splitting it up into a couple different days, Essek still felt that it was too much on Caleb’s plate, but the human assured him he was used to it and didn’t need any of that time for anything else. They settled on the three-hour overlap of their free time.
To Essek’s surprise, however, Caleb was meeting and exceeding every goal for his classes, including their more involved tutoring sessions every Sunday. Caleb even brought up that he wasn’t feeling challenged by the classwork he was being given in his normal classes, finishing his homework with time to spare in his schedule, which he would use the spare time to read ahead, complete homework, and by the time midterms came around, he was almost ready to begin the final projects for half of his classes and was requesting the information from his professors so he could take care of them. It was incredible to Essek just how much work Caleb was able to do in such a short amount of time, and it made him push harder, give more challenging work and assignments, and even ridiculous things he didn’t think Caleb would be able to accomplish just to give him a challenge; Caleb met each and every one with a certainty that belied his constant self-doubt.
Essek knocked on the door to Caleb’s apartment and waited, knowing that as late as it was, Caleb’s roommate would probably be home. The door swung open and the roommate, a purple tiefling named Mollymauk, with countless tattoos and a wildly varied fashion sense that was carefully colorful, designed, and fitted, and would have been appalling if not for the personality that wore it, opened the door. Tonight the tiefling was in a fitted and risque getup, and it did tickle Essek’s interest a bit; but the tiefling didn’t take much interest in him, so he didn’t even bring up the subject at all.
“Good evening, Mollymauk,” Essek greeted him with a nod of the head. “Is your roommate still home?”
“Of course he is, Essek, come on in!” he waved him through the door and chuckled. “And you know you can just call me Molly, we know each other now, it’s not like it’s weird.” Essek didn’t reply, taking his shoes and coat off in the entryway. “He’s in the living room. I have a date tonight, so I’ll be out. Probably until Sunday, even,” Molly said, mirroring Essek’s movements in reverse. “Just make sure he eats before he goes to work if you end up staying the night, he never eats before work.” And he was gone, closing the door behind himself.
“Make sure he eats?” Essek repeated to himself, incredulous. He shook his head and continued into the house, trying to push the idea of staying the night out of his mind. The television was on in the living room, the same nature channel from online playing to entertain the brown and orange cat that Caleb kept. It was his usual routine for studying, occupying his cat with entertainment while he immersed himself in his books. But the cat wasn’t sitting, playing with the birds on the screen; it was curled up on Caleb, who was splayed across the couch, both fast asleep.
Friday was understandably one of Caleb’s busiest days, and staying up until one in the morning wasn’t an uncommon occurrence for any college student, but Caleb’s strict scheduling noted he would stay up until three in the morning, sleep for about six hours, and work at the library from ten until six at night, and study again until three. Essek knew this from scheduling the tutoring sessions, but seeing the schedule in action was absurd. Seeing Caleb breaking his schedule was even more absurd.
“Hey, Caleb?” Essek carefully shook Caleb’s shoulder, trying not to dislodge the cat from his perch on Caleb’s chest. That mission failed almost as soon as he got close to Caleb, the cat yawning, stretching, then leaping from Caleb’s lap and beginning to cry loudly. “Frumpkin, can you wake your human up?” he asked, looking at the cat.
The first few times he had witnessed Caleb talking to the cat, he thought it was laughable that Caleb thought his cat could understand common; but the cat obeyed many commands, from simple to complex, and Essek even began to speak to the cat and ask for simple favors. This time, however, Frumpkin just continued to cry. He wasn’t entirely sure what to do, as he hadn’t cared for a cat before and didn’t know how to discern the cries of a cat. But he knew Caleb had a feeding schedule for his companion and checked in just in case. Frumpkin followed him into the kitchen and continued to cry; Frumpkin had not been fed according to the feeding schedule, still unmarked for the evening. Essek had seen Caleb feed Frumpkin before, so he grabbed the bowl and some of the cat food, Frumpkin weaving between his feet and meowing at him.
That task done, he marked off the evening meal and returned to the living room, once again trying to rouse Caleb from his slumber. The human slept deeply and was not at all jarred from his dreams for the fifteen minutes Essek tried. He realized he might just end up staying the night as Mollymauk had assumed, and set to finding himself a comfortable position for his nightly trance. He knew he was better suited to an overfilled schedule because he required half the sleep of most other people, but he tried to keep the extra hours as relaxation time. It was about two in the morning when he had set up enough pillows and blankets in the chair by the couch when he went into his trance, and Frumpkin, gleefully purring and kneading his lap, was his companion as he dozed off.